I'm baaaack.

Well as many of you may remember, I went to Kalamazoo, Michigan this last weekend for the Living History Show there. If you want to read about the show itself, go over to The Spoon and Blade's Review of it. I had a lot of fun, and there is some great 1756 gun pr0n in the review.

As for the trip, we had a great time. We left work an hour early to try to beat a lot of the traffic in Chicago. Mission accomplished! That one hour caused us to miss most of the traffic problems. We only had one real bad stoppage and that was where we had to get off of 290 to get onto 294. However once we got onto 294 we never slowed down to below 50 MPH. Also thank god for I-pass. We saved a total of $5.10 by having it this weekend. Which isn't all that much, but hey, $5.10 saved is better then $5.10 lost. The real benefit was being able to go through the toll booths with out having to stop or wait for traffic. Except at the very first toll booth we went through in Belvidere. Some guy in a "Black Gold Septic Systems" pumping truck came to a complete stop and was waiving his I-pass around out the window. That irritated me to no end.

Once we got into Indiana, all the tollbooths disappeared, and so did most of the traffic. And the roads where much better. Nice and smooth, 6 lanes, long on/off ramps. It was a nice system.

However, their roads were nowhere near as nice as Michigan's. I kid you not, it was like driving on glass, and the speed limit was 70 MPH. The countryside was beautiful, lots of trees and just really tranquil. It felt really rural, even when you where in an urban area. My wife and I decided that we wouldn't mind moving to Michigan. However their idea of clearly marked road and street signs needs some work, especially in Kalamazoo itself. It was easy to get confused on where you where going with the funky stop light arrays and the one way signs on divided roads. Plus it was hard to find street signs at times, so we weren't always sure if we made the correct turn.

We stayed at the Clarion hotel in Kalamazoo. We have some issues with this hotel. First off, Friday night my wife had an allergic reaction to the bleach they used in the sheets (She had this problem back in December in a local hospital so she knew what it was). So she called the front desk to get some hypo-allergenic sheets. The night clerk said she didn't know if she would be able to get them, but she would check and leave a message with the day shift. My wife ended up sleeping with one of my t-shirts on the pillow and in one of my button downs in order to keep the sheets away from her skin. The next morning we checked with the desk clerk about the sheets. She told us she hadn't heard anything about it, and she would check into it for us by the time we got back to the hotel that evening. When we returned from the show we asked the afternoon clerk about the sheets and he tells us, nothing was left for him advising about any sheet issue, but he'd get it taken care of right away. (no checking, he was just going to do it). With in 15-20 minutes there is a knock on our door and there is a guy with hypo-allergenic sheets. Yes, they do exist, and this guy knew where to find them. So Saturday night my wife was able to sleep comfortably. What burns me is that the evening guy was able to do something about it in 15-20 minutes easily. But the night and day shifts had to check into it and then never passed the information on nor got back to us. Grrrr.

Then there was the restaurant in the hotel. It took them 5-10 minutes to acknowledge we needed to be seated. There was a "Please wait to be seated" sign , and we were only the third party in the place. The other two had been there a while and were already most of the way through their meal. The food was kind of nasty. We had the breakfast buffet Saturday morning, and the eggs where runny reconstituted eggs, they didn't have the coffee labeled regular or de-caff, we had a hard time finding anyone that worked there, to ask which was which. They didn't check on a regular basis if anything went empty or to refill drink containers.

There there was the TV in the room that kept making funny noises anytime there was a scene with a bright white light in the picture.

Also they give you a coffee pot with complimentary coffee, however they don't give you spoons or stir sticks to stir in sugar and creamer. That was only a problem on Saturday as my wife broke the coffee pot Sunday morning while trying to make some.

On the way up to Kalamazoo we had to stop to use the restrooms and decided to get something to eat. We stopped in this little town called Paw Paw(exit 60 on I-94) (Yes there is small town in Illinois with that name. No, I did not drive in a circle). We choose to go to this restaurant there called Gallaghers. This was an Irish Eatery and Pub according to the sign. Well the sign did not lie. You walked in, it smelled like a pub, it sounded like a pub, it looked like a pub. I was waiting for the soccer hooligans to come out of the bathroom. They had Guinness, New Castle, Murphy's, Bass, and some other Irish/Scottish/English beers on tap. They also had a wide selection of Whisky, including my favorite Glenmorangie. There was also your standard Jameson, Bushmills, and Glenlivet. Needless to say I was in my drinking heaven. If I wasn't driving another 20 miles, I probably would have had a drink or 2. The best part about the place however... The food. They actually had Irish cooking on the menu. I had some of the best corned beef and cabbage I have ever had in my life there, and my wife had this wonderful shepherd's pie. We were impressed. Trust me, the next time we are through that way, we'll probably be stopping in there for dinner again.

I picked up some much needed items, and a couple must have items. We met a lot of new and interesting people and Needless to say, I had a great time. We hope to get to tod (Stupid typos) do it again next year.